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No agreement without a Palestinian capital in Jerusalem: Mahmoud Abbas

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has ruled out any agreement without a Palestinian Capital in East Jerusalem.

PTI | Jun 10, 2010, 08:41 IST

WASHINGTON: Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has ruled out any agreement without a Palestinian Capital in East Jerusalem.
"Not possible. Not possible. Not possible in any way. East Jerusalem is occupied territory. We will not sign any agreement that does not include East Jerusalem as the capitol of Palestine," Abbas said in an interview at the popular Charlie Rose show.

"The entire world recognises that including the US, including Olmert who says East Jerusalem or what he calls the Arab neighbours are for the Palestinians and it is their capital. We cannot accept any solution that excludes East Jerusalem," he asserted.

Abbas, who met the US President Barack Obama, at the White House early in the day, said what he would like from any US administration is to deal with fairness, to pursue the general interest of all based on international legitimacy.

"We don't talk about pressures or not pressures or anything of that sort... we want from every US administration to implement international law, international legitimacy," he said.

Because of that, what we are asking of this administration and what we have requested from previous administrations is that - for the US administration to work towards implementing this international legitimacy, especially that the Obama administration - and this is the first time we hear from a US administration talking about that the solution of a two-state solution is in the vital interest of the US.

He said that for an administration to reach this conclusion... "it is expected for the administration to implement that and to try to do it as quickly as possible in order to reach the two-state solution because the two-state solution is no longer only a Palestinian interest or an Israeli interest or a Middle East interest, but it is also an US interest."

The Palestinian leader said though he has not asked for it but he wish there was an American plan.

"I hope and wish that the time would come that it is said these are the solutions and here it is up to you to choose, either this conflict could continue forever or you would solve it this way. The solution is present. It is present within the international legitimacy, it is within the Roadmap, it is within the Arab initiative for peace," he said.

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